Hey I've got the remo black suede emperors on all six of my toms. I have remo clear ambassadors on the bottom which I got the same time as the black suedes. I got the clear ambassadors because they don't really add "flavor" that would render it difficult for me to judge the characteristics of the black suedes. Also clear ambassadors go perfect with everything.
My drums are 6 ply maple Keller shells.
(Note:the remo black suede comes in both 1 and 2 ply, the onyx is only a two ply. I use the two ply remo version)
On the higher toms they produce quite a pure tone with not very much over tone, at least on my drums. Since the heads were two ply, I had to crank it pretty high on the 8" tom, before it started to resonate well. But this is typical of two ply heads, you always gotta crank up the 8 a little.
In general, there is an immense attack with these heads. I'm not saying there is no tone, but the attack is very defined. I mitigated this slightly by tuning each drum a tiny bit higher, to squeeze a bit more sustain out of the drum, but the strong attack is ever present. I say again, VERY defined attack.
All my drums are square as in 8"x8" and 18"x18".
The 8", 10", 12", all have very clear fundamental pitches, and the 13" starts to growl a slight bit. The 16" and 18" are absolute monsters, and I can tune very low with these heads. Make sure you time these well, I found a very exaggerated difference in the quality of sound when it was in tune compared to when it was only slightly out of time. I pride myself in having a sharp ear, so it may not be as apparent as I make it out to be.
I also got a black suede powerstroke 3 and it is the worst head I've ever heard on a bass drum. The attack dominates fully and there is no such thing as tone, even when tuned up uncomfortably high. The muffling ring on the head takes away what minuscule resonance the head had in the first place.
I tried a black sure ambassador on my snare and I hated it. It chokes the drum, and I feel like a non rimshot sounds like the sound you get when you crank the snares wayyyy past any form of response.
But the rimshot sounded really good, but that's all I can say about it. I out it on a steel drum and I had the same problem, lack of response and a general choked sound.
Keep in mind that this was the ambassador 1 ply.